


les belles dames sans merci

by plutonianshores



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Serial Killers, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:27:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25393108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plutonianshores/pseuds/plutonianshores
Summary: Gamora and Nebula have been manning the family farm ever since their father fell ill, relying on hired hands to pick up the slack. It'ssohard to find good help.
Relationships: Gamora/Nebula (Marvel)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25
Collections: Multifandom Horror Exchange (2020)





	les belles dames sans merci

**Author's Note:**

  * For [summerdayghost](https://archiveofourown.org/users/summerdayghost/gifts).



> So many thanks to bastardly_deeds for betaing and especially helping me figure out which parts needed fleshing out!

The new hired hand arrived in the morning. He must’ve been walking all night to get to the farm on time; they were miles from the nearest train station. Nebula did like a man with initiative. He knocked at the door, and tipped his hat when Nebula opened it.

"Jesse Turner, at your service," he said.

"Nebula," she replied, giving him a nod. "You’re early."

"Hope that won’t be a problem, miss."

"Oh, on the contrary. I admire your gumption." Nebula stepped aside, watching Jesse’s face as he came through the door. His nose wrinkled, but he hid his reaction well. Nebula knew full well that the odor of their house wasn’t the most pleasant. Farming was dirty work, pig farming even more so. Any farmhands who couldn’t handle it wouldn’t last long.. "I’ll show you to your bedroom."

Jesse had a small bag with him, a good set of work boots on his feet, and not much else. He looked around at the room with appreciation – another point in his favor. They didn’t have much on the farm, and many of their hired hands had turned up with far too many possessions for what little they had to offer. Such a struggle, always, packing those up when the man didn’t work out. "Mighty kind of you to welcome me in like this. Wouldn’t be unreasonable to ask me to sleep in the barn."

"You wouldn’t get much sleep in there," Nebula said. "The pigs are loud and messy and they smell _foul_. And we’ve got the space in here." She and Gamora were sharing, but they’d never minded that. Even when they’d had their own rooms as girls, before their father had gotten sick and they’d had to set aside a room for the help, one of them had ended up in the other’s bed many nights. Daddy had tried to discourage them back then, but he’d given up on that by now. He’d worried they’d make each other soft, growing up friends with each other. It had just made Nebula split, torn between loving her sister and knowing only one of them could be Daddy’s favorite, and it would never be Nebula. Even when Gamora had come to comfort her the nights after fights, comfort that had turned to kisses and then to more, it hadn’t wiped away that knowing.

At least now their father was quiet.

"Lotta house for two sisters," Jesse said.

Nebula found herself glancing out the door. "Our father’s here too, but he’s real sick. Like as not you won’t see him. His room is at the end of the hall – leave him alone, he doesn’t like to be woken."

"Sure thing." Jesse didn’t seem bothered by it the way so many of the hired hands before him had. And he hadn’t gawked at her scars or her missing fingers once, another rare quality. He was going to do well here, Nebula could tell.

Gamora made supper that night – pork from their latest slaughtered pig. Jesse tucked in with great enthusiasm, so he must have been working up an appetite out in the barn.

"This is good," Jesse said between mouthfuls of pork, “not like any pork I ever had before.”

“Getting it fresh makes all the difference,” Nebula said, shooting a little smile at Gamora.

“And we take good care of our pigs,” Gamora added. “Make sure they have a good diet.”

The table went quiet for a bit after that, until Jesse spoke up again. “Y’all have been real good to me.”

"Our pleasure," Gamora said, delicately cutting her pork. "It’s so hard to find good help."

"You settled in all right?" Nebula asked. Jesse nodded enthusiastically, fork still in his mouth. "Keep to your room tonight, if you will. Our father doesn’t sleep well, and he hates noise."

"Of course, miss." Nebula had no doubt he’d stay put, too, unlike some of the men who’d come before him. No, Jesse followed the rules.

Gamora stood up. "I’ll take Daddy his dinner. He was feeling better this morning, he might even be up for meeting Jesse tomorrow."

"Let’s not rush him," Nebula said. He’d always liked Gamora better, and she wouldn’t put it past him to run himself to exhaustion to keep her seeing him as strong. He wouldn’t get out of bed for Nebula, but for Gamora...maybe. "Let him rest."

Gamora’s lips turned down into the slightest of frowns, but she nodded. "He does need his rest."

Jesse washed up (such a good man) and the two of them went to bed. Gamora spent quite a while in with their father, her quiet conversation barely audible from Nebula and Gamora’s room. Jesse wouldn’t be able to hear it at all at the end of the hall, so he wouldn’t lose any sleep. Good for Nebula, since she wouldn’t have to chastise Gamora. He needed his sleep if he was going to get his work done tomorrow.

Gamora slipped into bed when Nebula was half-asleep. "I like him," she whispered, lips tickling Nebula’s ear.

"He’ll do." Nebula turned to wrap her arms around Gamora’s shoulders. "I meant it about not rushing Daddy."

"Oh, I won’t!" Gamora kissed Nebula’s cheek. "I just want him better."

Nebula couldn’t bring herself to lie and say she did too. Gamora had never really understood how hard Daddy was on Nebula, how hard Nebula fought for him to see her as Gamora’s equal instead of inferior. This sickness had kept him kinder, or at least kept him from punishing her. And without him watching over the shoulders of the hired hands constantly, finding fault with the slightest of things, they could keep the men on longer. The worst years had been when he’d gotten too old to work like he used to but not tired enough to sit back - stalking through the barn, yelling at Gamora and Nebula and whatever poor sap had answered the latest personal ad. He’d always decided they had to get rid of the man sooner or later, usually sooner, whether it was for being lazy enough to take a break instead of working from sunup to sundown or the impertinence of saying good morning to Gamora. Off the man would go, leaving Nebula and Gamora to clean up the mess left behind. Hell, Jesse might be a permanent addition to the household. Life was better now that they’d had a chance to find their wings out from under their father’s stern gaze. "I know, sweet. He will be, with time."

They both watched Jesse work the next day. It took more than one man to keep up with the pigs, so they were nominally there to lend a hand, but Nebula would be lying if she didn’t admit she wanted to get a feel for his work. Sure, he knew they were watching, but no one worked this hard to keep up appearances. He caught her looking, and Nebula gave him a wave, leaning against her shovel.

"Y’all don’t need to do this," Jesse called across the barn.

"If we left you alone, you’d drown in pig shit and not have time for the planting tomorrow."

Jesse shrugged and went back to shoveling. When the work was through, he washed up at the pump and left for the house. He might have stayed and ogled, and Nebula appreciated not being forced to tell him not to. Getting _clean_ was a lost cause, but they could aim for cleaner.

Gamora stuck her hands under the stream of water and splashed it at Nebula, laughing when Nebula shrieked. Nebula forced down memories of herself alone at the pump, washing off the blood from her father’s latest punishment, and splashed back. "I’m not kissing you when you’re covered in shit. And Jesse might see."

"I’ll have to wait until later, then." Gamora snuck her hand onto Nebula’s ass for a brief pinch, then acquiesced. "Wait up for me tonight."

Nebula did, watching the light of Gamora’s candle flickering under their father’s door, listening to the soft murmur of conversation. Finally, finally, Gamora crept out, shielding her candle from the motion. Nebula slid over to make room for her sister, but Gamora didn’t get into bed.

"Daddy wants to talk to you," she said instead.

She should have known, really. It had never just been Gamora and Nebula. Their father had always loomed large between them, haunting every conversation, every touch. Before he’d fallen ill, he would set them on each other whenever he felt they were getting too close, a sick competition that Nebula fought like hell to win even though she knew she never would. It had been hard to see how he’d grown older and weaker when Nebula had been watching it happen day by day, when he’d remained just as overbearing and just as keen to pit them against each other. Until one day, when he’d been shouting at Nebula as she prepared dinner and Nebula had seen the shake in his hand, the stoop in his stance, and realized just how weak he’d gotten since their childhood, and that there was nothing keeping her from fighting back…

And he’d gotten sick. Now they had to be ever so careful, to keep him happy in his sickbed.

"What does he want?"

"Come and hear it from him."

Nebula grudgingly followed her sister, standing at the foot of their father’s bed. He looked up at them, head lolling back against the pillow. Nebula fought back the nausea that always threatened to overcome her during visits – the sickbed was never a pleasant place to be. Gamora dabbed a cool cloth at his brow, leaned in to hear his words. She’d always had more patience than Nebula, who hadn’t heard anything but groans from their father in months.

"He doesn’t care for the hired hand."

Nebula loved her sister. She did. But if it came to a choice between Nebula and their father, Gamora would choose their father every time. "He’s the best we’ve had."

"He’s been looking at us." Gamora took their father’s hand in hers. "He’s been looking at Daddy’s room."

"He won’t disobey." Nebula prayed he wouldn’t prove her wrong. "I’m running this farm. Me. Daddy hasn’t been out of bed in _months._ This is _my_ decision."

"He’s been sick!" Gamora shouted, loud. Too loud. A door opened, and then Jesse was there in the doorway to the bedroom, staring.

"Oh, Jesse," Nebula said, "you really should have stayed in your room."

"He’s...he’s not sick." Jesse gaped at them, staring right at their father. "Listen, I don’t know what you’ve got going on here, but that man ain’t been alive in some time now."

"He’s not well." Gamora’s hand tightened around their father’s, bones grinding together. His fingerbones were beginning to show through now, skin slipping away under Gamora’s grasp. He was – sick, Nebula reminded herself. Sick. "He...oh, Daddy, don’t say that. Jesse’s been so good to us!"

Jesse started to back away. "Please, don’t...you don’t have to do this. I’ll leave right now, or I’ll stay! Whatever you want, and I won’t tell anyone."

Gamora looked like she was actually considering it. Everything they’d been through together, and all it took was one plea to turn her stomach. No wonder their father had always given Nebula the hard cases, leaving Gamora with the fellows who needed taking by surprise. One blow to the head would cut off any pleas before they had a chance to make it to the air. For all Gamora was the favorite, he’d known he could trust Nebula to do the dirty work. "Daddy says you can’t be trusted," she said.

Jesse reached his hands out towards her. "I’ll make you a promise. I never go back on my word."

As Gamora reached out to take his hand, Nebula crept up behind him, keeping her footsteps silent. She was in her nightgown, no weapons nearby – she grabbed the lamp of the bedside table and swung it at the back of his head.

It connected with a deep thud, sending him slumping forward onto Gamora, who stifled a scream. Nebula dragged him back by his feet and hit him again, and again, until his head wasn’t so much a head as a sloppy pile of blood and bone and brain. It would be a nightmare to clean up, but they’d manage.

Gamora stepped out of the way of what remained of Jesse, stealing a glance at their father. Nebula followed her gaze, and saw his mouth spread wide in what passed for a grin, lips curled up to show his teeth. He didn’t say he was proud of her, but it was as close as he ever got.

Nebula caught Gamora wiping back a few tears as they scrubbed gore out of the floorboards, and she made Nebula walk carefully as they took him down the stairs, keeping his head from slamming against the floor. She made Nebula take the axe to him too, although Nebula didn’t begrudge her not having the stomach to hack him apart. She did watch, Nebula noted with pride, as Nebula fed Jesse’s remains to the pigs. It wasn’t a surprise when Nebula woke up to find Gamora gone, not exactly, but it did hurt like a knife to the gut. She didn’t tell their father, just kept tending to the farm and bringing him meals. She put out advertisements for hired hands, and took care of them when they proved too lazy or too curious or too boorish. Maybe Gamora would come back some day. Maybe she would send the sheriff instead. Whatever happened, it was just Nebula, alone with her father. She’d always been alone, really. This was just banishing the illusion that her sister had ever been on her side.


End file.
